Promoting Equality on Public Lands | Work in Progress

Hi friends, we want you to know what we are working on our procedure for racial justice, combating structural inequality, and becoming an organization that is truly geared to serve you, the people that own our public lands, but as a staff we feel that we need to spend some time looking at how we can utilize our company to benefit the purpose of equality. We didn't want to just jump into your feed with a statement that just makes us look better, or is based in not being a part of something we maybe should have been a part of all along. We want this to be real, and meaningful. We are investing the time into it now. This has been something we have cared about, and for much of our staff, invested time and educational resources into, but we feel there is a lot more we can do if we take a bigger look into what ways we can serve our communities of color, and all human beings, like us, that don’t fit into the mainstream idea of a person that should be in the outdoors. We are starting by educating ourselves, and in the meantime doing all we can to make sure that each person feels safe, accepted, and valued, when they are with us on the river or otherwise doing business with us.

While outdoor recreation is completely white dominated, and excludes many minorities and people of color, we intrinsically know that public land, which is managed by organizations that have expressed their commitment to equality, as well as spending time in nature, are congruent with equality. We know that all of these rivers are ancestral homes to tribes of native americans. We know that we are all descendants of Africa. We all know that we live in an economic, political, and judicial system that was not designed for these members of our community. We know that we benefit from this system financially, and are given privileges that we have not earned. We realize that we have a place in this world to make a change.

We're working on a plan to make structural changes and educational reinforcements in this regard. We are spending some time and resources to educate our staff, collect information, listen, and make a plan that will ensure that we can be a leader in regards to equality through the future. Once we're finished we'll post a summary. We need help. If anyone has input, ideas, or educational materials, your suggestions could really help us right now. Take care, and thank you.

United States Forest Service